Saint Michael the Archangel Parish

21 Manning St

Hudson, MA 01749

Interpreting the Bible

 ...you received not a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God, 
which is now at work in you who believe.
1 Thessalonians 2:13

How can we best interpret what we read in the Bible?


Sacred Scripture is one of the Church's greatest treasures, and she proclaims the written Word of God at every liturgy: the Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, the Rite of Baptism, the Rite of Confirmation, the Order of Marriage, and in the celebration of all the other Sacraments. The Church also encourages the faithful to read Scripture for study, for meditation, and for devotional prayer.

In order to arrive at a proper and accurate interpretation of Scripture, we must pay attention first to the intent of each of the Sacred Authors, the literary styles each one employed, and the symbolic language each one used; second we must read every passage of the Word of God within the context of Scripture as a whole, Sacred Tradition, and the doctrinal and moral truths taught by the Catholic Church.

We too give thanks to God unceasingly, that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us, you received not a human word but, as it truly is, the word of God, which is now at work in you who believe. 1 Thessalonians 2:13

The fathers of the Second Vatican Council identified three main criteria for interpreting Scripture.  We should attend to the following:


  • keep in mind the "content and unity" of all Scripture.
  • read Scripture within "the living Tradition of the whole Church."
  • pay attention to the "analogy of faith," which is defined as "the coherence of the truths of faith among themselves and within the whole plan of Revelation." (Cf. CCC 112-114)


The Tradition of the Church also recognizes that Scripture has both a literal sense, which forms the basis for understanding all the "senses" of Scripture, and a spiritual sense, consisting of the following:


  • the allegorical sense, which views people and events in the Old Testament as a prefiguration of people and events in the New Testament.
  • the moral sense, which examines the message or lesson for proper human conduct.
  • the anagogical sense, in which concepts and events are seen as foreshadowing eternal life in Heaven. (Cf. CCC 115-118)


The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 109, and paragraphs 115-117 addresses this question.

-The Didache Bible


Your Word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path. 

Psalms 119: 105


How can we best understand the Old Testament?


Beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures.... With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. Then they said to each other, "Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?"  (Luke 24:27, 31-32)


The Old Testament comprises a diverse range of books rich in history, instruc­tion, allegory, and symbolism. The Church calls upon us to understand the literal sense and spiritual sense of Scripture and their relationship to each other in order to draw forth the full depth and richness of the Word of God.

Literal Sense

When reading the Old Testament, it is important to understand first a passage's literal sense, its most immediate and direct meaning. What was the inspired author trying to say? "All other senses of Sacred Scripture are based on the literal" (STh 1,1,10, ad I). (Cf. CCC 116)


In order to do this, we must consider the literary genre of the passage. Is it history, law, wisdom, poetry, prophecy, apocalyptic, letter, epic, or allegory? Each type conveys its truths in a somewhat different manner and must be read accordingly. For example, the account of creation reveals God as the Creator of all things and the order and goodness of his creation. Prominent in this narrative is the exalted dignity of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God.



However, we should avoid reading the Old Testament literalistically.  A literal­istic interpretation would render the earth immobile, flat, and set upon pillars (cf. 1 Samuel 2:8; Job 9:6); in addition, sea monsters would be set as guards at the edges of the seas (cf. Psalms 104; Job 41).

Spiritual Sense

The spiritual sense is also important to evoke the full meaning of what the Holy Spirit intends. The Catechism describes three main spiritual senses, each of which lends insight into the meaning of Scripture in its own special way:


  • the allegorical, or typical, sense, which understands a person, place, or event of Scripture as being a figure, or type, of a later person, place, or event (see "An Apologetical Explanation of Typology," p. 370);
  • the moral, or tropological, sense, which understands how the people, places, and events of Scripture can be models of right behavior and can teach us about personal dignity and responsibility; and
  • the anagogical sense; which understands how the teachings of Scripture lead to eternal life. (Cf. CCC 116-117)


The Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraphs 116-117 addresses this question.

-The Didache Bible

"If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself."
-Saint Augustine

What is Typology?

Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin after the pattern of the trespass of Adam, who is the type of the one who was to come. (Romans 5:14)


Many figures, themes, and events contained in the Old Testament point to semeone or something that appears in the New Testament. These typologies, or "tvpes," illustrate how, in the words of Saint Augustine, "The New Testament lies hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is unveiled in the New" (cf. DV16). This has been recognized since the beginning of the Church (cf. 1 Cor 10:6,11; Heb 10:1; 1 Pt 3:21).


Sacred Scripture comprises two testaments, but it is all one act of Divine Revelation, one Word of God. The Old and New Testaments possess a unity in their sweeping narrative of salvation history and the richness of God's deepening self-Revelation to man, a Revelation that culminates and is completed in Jesus Christ, who is the fullness of God's Revelation. This unity between the testaments is made most evident through typology, i.e., those persons and events in the Old Testament (types) that prefigure Christ and his salvific mission in the New Testament (antitypes).


In the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:13-35), the disciples did not understand these typologies except in retrospect, when Christ explained how his life, Death, and Resurrection fulfilled the Old Covenant.  It is yet one more way "that God may be all in all" (1Corinthians 15:28). As Christians, we read the Old Testament in light of the New Testament, with its Gospel recounts of the Death and Resurrection of Christ. Even so, the Old Testament has a value all its own: it is the Revelation of God ultimately fulfilled in Christ. (Cf. CCC 129)



The Catechism of the Catholic Church in paragraphs 128-130 addresses this question.

-The Didache Bible

What do we mean when we say, for example, that Adam is a "type" of Christ?


It is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living being," the last Adam a life-giving spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:45)


It is through typology that Saint Paul sees Adam as a prefiguration of particular aspects of Christ, who is the first man of the New Creation. Even die snake raised up on a staff by Moses to heal the people is seen as a type of Christ (cf. John 3:14).

 

There are various links to the Sacraments and other New Testament realities as well; for example, it is through typology that scholars and Church Fathers often find Old Testament references to water that prefigure Baptism.

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